Chapter 3--Up & Out?
by Flora Belle Jardiniere
Summary: Tensions build between gangs and the new team at MDPD must face the exit of their long-time leader. Horatio suffers a relapse from his last gunshot wound and furthers his courtship of the genteel general while both recover in the hospital.


CSI: Miami—Crime of the Week

Horatio received word of the department's decision to extend his medical leave until it ran out with a smile, surprising his three care givers that he smiled instead of frowning. He'd been home from the hospital for nearly a month and showed no signs of wanting to return to an office that felt like a prison cell. He knew he would soon so Miami County would pay for his re-education (others did it so why shouldn't he), but stay only long enough to get his Master's Degree in Education. He only had six months left because he used work and life credits to speed up his graduation.

Anyone with eyes in her head could see why he wasn't as anxious to return to work as he'd been previously, but few of those in the know willingly shared their knowledge with outsiders. General Davenport shared care givers with Horatio and the quintet decided it would be much easier on everyone if he stayed nearer to her place in Whispering Springs Village, so he traded his home in Miami for a smaller one there. He had just cause for the move that he wasn't aware of, since Julius had begun ramping up his plans to eliminate the man and his closest associates.

He thought the group would be easy pickings until he did a preliminary mission to determine if getting at them was as easy as his crew told him it would be. He was glad he heeded his instincts and checked the place out for himself, because Whispering Springs Village was a retirement community for high-ranking military personnel, which took its residents' security needs seriously. Each home sat within walled acreage called an enclave. There were nine enclaves to a cul-de-sac and each enclave in a cul-de-sac backed the same inlet, which itself was guarded 24/7 by three patrols.

There were cameras and speakers installed inside the walls at intervals of ten feet. These could be adjusted manually only by the owner of record, and were otherwise adjusted by a central command that sat in the exact center of each community. The command center staff only altered a camera's angle if it pointed away from the house and/or grounds it was meant to watch.

The community was surrounded by a thick wall that was ringed on top with concertina wire and patrolled on foot by teams of three men with a dog to scent out trouble. They circled the entire compound several times a shift, presenting a formidable obstacle to anyone foolish enough to consider invading the facility. He witnessed one nut case try to access a gate without permission and two dogs nearly tore him to pieces, when he kept trying after the guards told him to stop.

Unlike his closest competition in the Mala Noches, he saw outside patrols and was smart enough to assume there were inside ones as well. Security being so tight meant there were top brass scattered throughout the community, which in itself meant little. He dug around some more and learned most of them were retired from one segment of the military intelligence command or another and some specialized in providing top notch security for their fellow retirees.

He wondered how he'd gain access to the retired cop until he saw the shapely blonde standing at a spot that overlooked the middle of the village. He chatted her up and learned she was Caine's only ex that had given him a child; that the child was none other than Kyle Harmon; and that Harmon was a corporal in the Marines.

That explained how he knew the General, but not how he came to work under her command. His next bit of intelligence came from his spy in the file room at the hospital and what he learned about the lieutenant's late brother and that man's freedom with his little soldiers made his snicker. He figured DNA played out with the lieutenant as it had with his younger brother, since they were related. It had in a way, but not the way he wished when Julia Eberly got herself knocked up with his child to force him out of the DEA (this was a bit of news he didn't welcome at all, since it meant the man probably still had connections at the agency).

Julius thought the woman was nuts when she chose to keep the kid after the father split to rescue his stupid brother. He lost any respect he might've had for her when he learned she abandoned her son to the foster care system so she could play the field looking for a rich husband. She claimed she didn't know how to reach Caine because he was under deep cover by then, but Julius knew if there'd been a will she'd have found a way.

Once he saw her as the garbage she was, it was easy to set her up for a fall and he knew just the man to give the task, her second ex Ron Saris. He'd do that to get revenge on the man for lying to him about the availability of ammo for the gun he tossed into the dumpster and on the woman for being such a bimbo. He wouldn't set that chain of events in motion until he got what he wanted, namely access to one retired cop and his family.

The civilian personnel thought there were no weaknesses, but the retirees within the compound knew very differently and looked out for each other when they were home. Everyone knew everyone else's business, but kept their distance from respect for their neighbors, so there was a regular welcoming committee there the day Horatio moved into his new home. They welcomed him warmly as one of them because he'd been instrumental in recovering several key pieces of military hardware that went missing.

He was the reason for the lightness in Miss Leila's step these days, giving him a second foot into a community that rarely admitted anyone other than a true military person. Few knew of Horatio's brief stint as a cadet in the Coast Guard, but his admissions committee knew and approved that he'd sacrificed his life of relative ease to become a guardian of his community. His affinity and passion for his work inspired many military personnel to join him in fighting crime, ig they chose not to re-up when the time came.

He was also responsible for ensuring the completion of several new medical field offices that made seeing their doctors a lot easier, though they weren't aware of it. He proved a valuable citizen because he still had his eyes and ears in Miami and extended his range to include their little village and several more nearby locations, to ensure they didn't harbor the criminal element. It was easy to do because he also kept in touch with his non-retired friends in the military and police communities outside of Whispering Springs' walls.

Horatio still served his community, just a little differently than he had before he retired. He met with the security teams regularly and informed them of changes in the way the criminal element operated outside their gates. Those meetings led to upgrades in the steel stanchions that locked the gates down, in the gates themselves, and in the bars on the windows of the control center. They also led to the installation of thicker bullet resistant glass in the windows of the control center, preventing a break in there a few months later.

Horatio had his hands full with teaching, reconnoitering with the community leaders outside his walls, and fishing off of his dock on the inlet. Then there was Leila, his sole reason for agreeing to the move. He felt like a kid again when he was around her, even though they were roughly the same age and she'd seen and done things he devoutly hoped he never would.

The neighborhood gathered at their windows to watch when the couple took an evening stroll, renewed by their youthful enthusiasm when they stopped to share a kiss because they felt like it. No one knew it took over two years of hard work and planning to get them to that point, but everyone watched the romance blossom into love. Madi was a dyed-in-the-wool romantic and cherished the sight of her beloved uncle with his sweetheart, wishing she'd find someone like him so she could settle down and have a family.

Susie felt the same way and urged Madi to join her when she had a girl's night out, which she was thrilled when her daughter accepted. They'd team up and hit a few hotspots, take in the night sights, and act like the family they were. It was easy to tell that Madi was Susie's daughter because the young woman wasn't shy calling her mom or mama when she felt the need to.

The occasions were rare because both women worked the graveyard shift at the hospital and their hours were crazy. Both were fulfilled in their chosen careers and grew closer as the years passed because they'd share war stories of their worst cases and how they ended. They giggled over the images of Horatio and Leila in the Whispering Springs Village Gazette, chuckling because they were obviously deeply in love and didn't care who knew it.

Their recovery time shortened considerably because they helped each other heal, but Leila would always have trouble walking thanks to the prostheses she wore. Her left leg was neoprene from the knee down, while her right was entirely engineered. The pair often conflicted, leading to nearly constant pain so most of the time he'd wheel her around the park near the command post. The increasingly rare times Leila chose to walk so she could lean on and hold hands with her beau enchanted the entire village.

His open and frequent return of her affections warmed hearts thought too cold to feel and brought smiles to many faces that hadn't cracked one in awhile. Horatio wasn't a spring chick, either and had to mind his back and neck, so there'd be no carrying his new bride over a threshold. He didn't care and neither did she. Autumn turned to winter and they celebrated their third year together quietly with friends and family.

Leila became decidedly misty-eyed when her beau risked being unable to rise unaided, bent his knee, and proposed after dessert. The ring was a gorgeous one. The center stone was a 1/2 carat, heart-shaped diamond surrounded by the birthstones of everyone she loved. His was the diamond at the center of her ring, which symbolized him being at the center of her heart.

Horatio thought things ended there, so he was stunned when she rolled over to his seat, placed a hand on his leg, and asked,

"I've accepted you, Lieutenant Caine. Will you accept me," and presented a ring that rivaled his for beauty.

She was a January child, so his center stone was a heart-shaped blood garnet instead of a diamond. The remaining stones were identical because they had the same circle of close friends and loved ones. It was his turn to turn misty and he did, croaking,

"I do, General Davenport. I must insist that you call me Horatio," and kissed her with restrained passion to affirm their love and finalize their first of many intimate contracts.

Her soft sigh of capitulation surprised her two aides-de-camp because they never thought she'd give into any man. It was music to her beau's ears but he wasn't fool enough to rush things, even after she accepted him. This was the real deal, the once in a lifetime for both of them and as such was very special to them and their family.

Julia had friends in Whispering Springs Village that kept her fully updated on the couple's deepening affections. Her jealousy simmered for weeks as she plotted their final parting, which left her no thought space for practicality or caution. Julius was the one to bring her rudely down to earth, snickering,

"You think you got a chance with Caine now he's found a woman that truly loves him? You gotta be outta your mind. You're in the gutter, which has needs of its own," and had the decided gall to try and kiss her.

He woke five minutes later near a dumpster in the bayou where they'd been talking, unaware that they'd been seen by the perimeter security cameras. The authorities found Mrs. Winston kicking up her heels in a local tavern and the gang banger face down in a pile of horse manure in the swamp. Film prove they'd been conversing until said something that upset her, when she keelhauled him to prove she meant what she said about not consorting with riff raff.

Ron saw Julia at his favorite bar and wondered what she was doing there, since she should've known it was his hangout nearly every night of the week when he wasn't plotting the downfall of a certain redhead he despised. He approached her and backed quickly away, put off big time by the air of insanity she wore. The woman wasn't as he remembered her and therefore was untouchable.

Ron returned to gnawing on his favorite bone; how to put Horatio Caine out of his misery and make it look like an accident. He decided that he needed to be as sharp as his quarry obviously was and went home early instead of partying until the butt crack of dawn. He paid a visit to MDPD and learned the man had the good sense to retire after running out his accrued leave going to school.

Ron watched him go about his daily life until the man was nearly killed rescuing a gorgeous blonde general from an attempt on her life. He wasn't at all put off by the woman's prosthetic legs, but was by her total lack of interest in anyone but her fiancée (he learned of their engagement when he saw the sparklers on their ring fingers).

It took a year or so, but Caine proved the canny dog he was and moved into a tightly guarded military retirement compound to be near his lover (he couldn't conceive of the pair not going there because he didn't even try resisting temptation when he found a willing partner). He also saw the tall walls, concertina wire, and major personnel guarding the village's inhabitants and had to reformulate his plans.

His curiosity aroused to see the woman who succeeded where his Julie failed (he still saw her as his even though he couldn't stand the sight of her), he inveigled a few of his highly-placed FBI buddies to look in on his enemy and see what he was up to, but most of them flatly refused. Agent Caruthers said it best,

"Horatio Caine is ten times the man you could ever hope to be, Saris. He took on the task of protecting his neighbors here as he tasked himself with the safety of his fellow Miamians. He still watches over that city and several others, though from a distance. He's the best source of intelligence we've got even though he's seldom seen outside these walls since he retired."

Ron sat outside in the swamp slathered in sun block and bug spray in the hopes of catching them out and learning their itinerary on the rare occasions they visited friends. They seldom left the security of the compound, so finding a way to separate them for good was difficult at best.

Julia haunted the area too and they were soon conniving together like in the old days before she met Caine. Julia had watched her ex in action enough to know when he was up to no good and from his location; she guessed he was again fantasizing about doing in the canny redhead she wanted to marry instead of murder. She also had to be on guard against Ron Saris, which made achieving her goal of returning Horatio to her side a serious challenge.

She gave him the information she had and the pair moved into the gathering gloom to continue their scheming unseen by the cameras that ringed the walls with the concertina wire. She was unaware that there were certain things her spies didn't know or chose not to reveal about her quarry, only one of which was his recent engagement to General Leila Davenport. She'd experienced his protectiveness when they were together and chafed at it then, thinking it was his way of controlling her.

It wasn't and she missed the trait soon after they parted company. She'd also been Ron Saris' mistress throughout her fling with Horatio, something he learned only after they separated. He chose to let it pass because he'd moved well beyond her long ago, while she clung tenaciously to the vain hope she'd make him love her again. She completely miss the point that you can't make anyone love you because manipulating people's emotions was second nature to her.

Ron learned of the engagement after the fact, as Julia did but had ways of dealing with the couple she didn't because his spies worked in the security division of the village. He didn't know that Horatio spent most of his time puttering around his backyard garden or fishing from his dock, or he'd have revised his plans considerably. Instead, he set an ambush for the man's bi-weekly checkup at his cardiologist's office.

That plan ran squarely into serious trouble with the Mala Noches, who were content to let the man live now he'd retired and moved onto a new life. They knew that his connections ran deeply in the community; that they created the kind of fanatic loyalty the leaders of the gang only wished they could inspire in their crews; and that the retired lieutenant would learn of their plans long enough in advance to thwart them. They didn't want interlopers stirring up the hornet's nests at MDPD and in the village because they finally managed to infiltrate the facility and wanted at the booty hidden there.

Jaime and Marcos completely missed the fact that escaping was much more difficult than penetrating the village's defenses. They learned of their folly after it was much too late to change their plans.

Sep 2015 by P.K. Taylor -Chapter 3—Out & Up- Original—Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Don't change/delete this date.


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